'Difficult and disturbing' ... Clarke Peters and Dominic West in Othello at the Crucible, Sheffield. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Sheffield's Crucible theatre deserved something special for its 40th birthday. Artistic director Daniel Evans has delivered it by booking Clarke Peters and Dominic West, both of whom became famous for their performances in The Wire, HBO's bafflingly lauded television series about inner-city crime. As Freamon might say, with the Wire's famously unflashy realism, "I ain't going to no dance less'n I can feel some titty." Quite.

Which is not to say that the casting of this Othello is the only thing worth seeing. All the critics enjoyed Evans's traditional interpretation, many quite a lot. "He has come up with one of those increasingly rare Shakespeare productions," says Michael Billington, "one that, without embracing any outrageous concept, suffuses the text with a wealth of psychological detail."

Nor are the famous faces necessarily a weakness. In West's case, the decision to cast him has paid off handsomely; in Peters's, it has broken about even. "The night belongs to Iago," says Dominic Cavendish. "West has a knack for evil, clothing it in inconspicuous garb ... He has adopted a rough 'ee bah gum' accent, a triumph of apparent trustworthiness ... Peters's accent is less successful: a deep African solemnity which carries much martial restraint but tips too often into indistinction."

In the Independent, Paul Taylor agrees, almost to the letter. "West breaks the recent mould of anally repressed NCO martinets with an ebullient, strapping brute of an Iago ... he's like a deadpan whirlwind parody of the plain-speaking Yorkshireman ... [Peters] is, however, too inclined to rush the verse and muffle its pulse." (You're still wondering about "anally repressed", aren't you?)

The Sheffield Telegraph, for one, will brook no quibbling. "This is as complete and exciting a production of this difficult and disturbing play as you could hope for," declares its anonymous review. And then disagrees with itself. "If the second half never quite matches the intensity of the first it's largely because Dominic West has less to do ... And while Peters is fine as a noble warrior/lover, he's less effective as the cuckolded lover; there's too much breast-beating, hair-tearing and handwringing as substitutes for real passion." Still, the paper notes, Peters does bring "a gentle, dignified bearing to the man who in his middle years finds sexual excitement and real love with a girl half his age. He and Desdemona's attraction is palpable."

Not that it would – at least among the national newspapers' overwhelmingly male critics – be difficult to evince desire for Lily James as Desdemona. Check out Quentin Letts: "We may have a new star actress on our hands," his review begins. "Her name is Lily James and she left drama school only last year, yet she practically sweeps all before her as Desdemona in this Othello. Poise, diction, allure – she has them all ... Someone fix that honey a Hollywood agent, pronto." And an ice bucket for Mr Letts! Prestissimo!

Do say: The Wire contains real American drug talk, you know.

Don't say: Why is Othello so cross? Can't he just buy her another handkerchief?